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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26853997">Helping Hands</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/idleside/pseuds/idleside'>idleside</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Revel [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>69 (Sex Position), Anal Sex, Canon Divergence - Post-Hogwarts, Casual Sex, Creampie, Dirty Talk, Drinking, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Healing, Healing Rituals, Massage, One Shot, Post-Hogwarts, Sex Magic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:02:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>14,151</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26853997</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/idleside/pseuds/idleside</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry is <i>fine</i>.</p><p>He doesn't really understand why Hermione's fussing over him so much. The break-up with Ginny had been as civil as possible, and even though he's still single and not really doing much of anything, it doesn't really seem like a big deal to him.</p><p>When Hermione loops Padma Patil into one of her various schemes to try and get Harry to undertake some kind of self-improvement, he's not expecting much of it at first, but when Padma reveals that she's been studying a new form of magic, he's intrigued enough to give it a shot.</p><p>Even though tantric magic is stereotyped as being about sex, it's pretty clear that their time together is a strictly therapeutic thing, right? There's no reason that it would turn into anything else...</p><p>It totally turns into something else.</p><p>(A prequel to the <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/1465702">Triplicity</a> universe, this stands on its own as a one-shot but will be enhanced by reading the other fics)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Padma Patil/Harry Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Revel [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1959004</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>96</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Folie A Trois Full Fics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Helping Hands</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The party sounded like a ridiculous idea when Hermione had first talked to him about it, but Harry had to admit that this whole “officially <em>not</em> an official Hogwarts reunion” thing had some upsides. It was nice, of course, to see so many of the friends that he hadn’t really been keeping in touch with, but equally as important to Harry, the bar had an <em>excellent </em>selection of firewhisky.</p><p>He’d maintained a steady routine throughout the evening: a single pour of something expensive that he could nurse for a while, followed by a cigarette or two, so on, so forth, et cetera. By the time that he’d burned through half of his pack of Dunhills, he was maintaining a steady, comfortable buzz, actually beginning to <em>enjoy </em>his evening out.</p><p>Such occasions had become somewhat of a rarity, as of late. While Harry still grit his teeth and put in the public appearances expected of him at various Ministry functions, he had definitely come to find that he preferred a quiet night in the corner of a dingy pub (preferably in the company of whisky) rather than the sort of enthusiastically boisterous occasions that his friends tended to put together.</p><p>
  <em>Not to mention that Gin shows up to most of them…</em>
</p><p>Harry hardly <em>resented </em>his ex-girlfriend, their break-up had been as civil and faultless as it could have been, but something about being in her company still set him on edge a bit. At some point he’d become inoculated to her infectious enthusiasm, and seeing her so obviously <em>happy </em>at those noisy and chaotic parties had a hint of bitterness to it.</p><p>He ventured back into the bar, grinding the butt of his latest smoke into the pavement as he was once more buffeted by a wall of noise and a <em>crowd </em>of people, figuring that he’d wash this bitterness down with something that he preferred the taste of.</p><p>It wasn’t even that he was “heartbroken” or anything like that: Harry totally understood that at the end of the day, Ginny and himself were simply too different as people to make it work, and he wasn’t going to get bogged down in thoughts of “if only…” or “what if?” which had no basis in reality. Their relationship had inevitably ended, and that was fine.</p><p>Which wasn’t to say that he hadn’t had a good and proper sulk over it, but this too was now in the past. He had his gig periodically consulting with the Aurors, at Hermione’s <em>insistent </em>demand he’d seen a therapist for a while, and he’d even had a couple one night stands here and there to get out of the “rut” that his friends had insisted he was in.</p><p>He was fine.</p><p>“An Ogden’s Old, please,” Harry placed his order at the bar, tapping a galleon down on its surface. This, too, was another aspect of his life that was <em>fine</em>: he was comfortably “wealthy” thanks to his inheritances, so he could easily afford to over-tip in this manner.</p><p>“Make that two,” a drawling voice that was becoming painfully familiar to him spoke from down the bar.</p><p>“Parkinson,” he greeted her disdainfully, not exactly <em>pleased </em>to see the former Slytherin. Unlike many of her compatriots who had managed to remake themselves into perfectly decent people following the end of the Second Wizarding War, Pansy Parkinson had been stubbornly resilient to change, her sneering and sarcastic demeanour apparently fully unaffected by the probation she’d been placed on.</p><p><em>Well, she’s not racist any more, at least, </em>Harry supposed; the brunette witch now usually targeted her cutting remarks at the perceived personal failures of her victims, rather than their blood status, which was apparently enough of an improvement that she was now allowed out in polite society.</p><p>“Potter,” she returned the greeting with even <em>more </em>disdain, somehow, “fancy finding you drinking alone in a corner. So very unlike you, isn’t it?”</p><p>“I guess I can’t be as full of surprises as you are,” Harry shrugged, “I’d have expected that you’d be latched on to some fool with more money than brains, but I suppose even <em>that </em>sort will catch on sooner or later.”</p><p>The bartender returned with a pair of drinks, and Parkinson practically snatched hers from the bar top, throwing it back as if it were a shot, before turning in his direction with a hazy sneer on her face.</p><p>“Oh, you see,” she practically <em>hissed</em>, every inch the ‘snake’ that her house had been stereotyped as, “I just <em>did</em>. Thanks for the drink, Potter, don’t wait up.”</p><p>Harry rolled his eyes as the witch departed, noticing that she had a slight wobble in her steps, her <em>aggressive </em>drinking habits at least serving to prove that he wasn’t the <em>worst </em>drunk at the bar. Then again, Parkinson’s <em>scandalous </em>mini-dress – <em>seriously, her tits are practically falling out, </em>he thought –almost certainly contributed to the concerned (in some cases) or offended (in most other cases) looks that she drew.</p><p>In truth, he didn’t even mind that she’d just suckered him into buying her a drink, because (as awful as she was) Harry actually <em>preferred </em>the sneering and snarling hostility from Parkinson, compared to the overly-cautious <em>concern </em>that some of his friends still treated him with. He was <em>fine</em>.</p><p>He noticed that he’d managed to finish his drink at some point in this musing, so ordered a re-fill, then began to meander through the party for one more loop before he’d make his eventual departure. Of the many signs that <em>some </em>things could actually change (unlike Parkinson), he spotted Ron and Draco deep in an exuberant conversation at one table, surrounded by a surprising number of young women who seemed to hang off the two men’s words.</p><p>“Harry!” a familiar voice called out, “c’mere for a minute!”</p><p>Harry turned his aimless wandering in Hermione’s direction, who sat at a table of her own, a slightly-bleary look in her eyes suggesting that <em>her </em>night was also beginning to approach its end. For all that Harry’s own break-up had been <em>fine</em>, Hermione had handled hers like an absolute champ, as evidenced by the fact that she didn’t even glance once in Ron’s direction, completely devoid of any lingering jealousy.</p><p>“Hey, ‘Mione,” Harry slid into the table, “hey, Padma. What’s up?”</p><p>“I was talking to Padma!” Hermione cheerfully announced, pointing at the former Ravenclaw for emphasis (<em>thanks, Hermione, put that one together all by myself) </em>before turning to prod Harry’s shoulder with this pointing finger, “and I think you should talk to her too!”</p><p>For all of Hermione’s vast intellect, once she had a few drinks in her, she tended to bounce between over and under-explaining her thoughts, and in this instance was landing heavily on the latter end of the scale.</p><p>“Oh?” Harry smirked at Padma, who simply shrugged in reply. He wasn’t exactly <em>close </em>with her, but Padma had wound up as one of Hermione’s better friends after Hogwarts, so he was certainly used to her company in a way that only made Hermione’s proclamation even more odd.</p><p>“Padma!” Hermione’s enthusiasm was undiminished, “was telling me about a style of healing magic she’s learning! I think that you should also hear about it!”</p><p>“Right, er,” this was shaping up to become one of the overly-cautious moments that got on Harry’s nerves at times, but he knew better than to argue with Hermione once she had latched on to an <strong>Idea</strong> of hers, “is that so?”</p><p>“Um,” Padma seemed just as much at a loss for how to continue the conversation as he was, “right, yes, what Hermione and I were discussing is really more of an academic pursuit of mine rather than any actual <em>healing </em>I could perform, and at any rate I’m quite certain that it would be rather redundant compared to more conventional dejinxing regimens, so, um, yeah.”</p><p>Harry blinked. While the Patil twins were <em>very </em>different from one another in a variety of ways, one of their shared traits was the ability to talk more quickly than anyone else that Harry had ever heard.</p><p>
  <em>I’ll take this over Parvati’s gossip, though. </em>
</p><p>“Okay…” he sipped his whisky, glancing at Hermione, who had folded her arms over her chest, half-glaring at him expectantly, “uh, what’s a dejinxing regimen?”</p><p>“You see what I mean?” Hermione gestured at him with <em>both </em>hands, even her frustration enthusiastic.</p><p>“Oh, a dejinxing regimen is a standard part of healing for those who see magical combat,” Padma explained, “what I’ve been researching is a branch of magic related to a sort of re-alignment of one’s magical balance, which shares some general principles with… wait, Harry, are you saying you’ve never been dejinxed?”</p><p>“Um,” Harry scratched at the back of his head, “no?”</p><p>The two intelligent women shared a glance between each other than managed to say even more than Padma’s words did: he realized that he’d buggered something up again.</p><p>“Harry…” Padma frowned, “I mean, not to over-step or anything, but given, well, what you’ve gone through… you should <em>really </em>have that done.”</p><p>“I, er,” Harry hadn’t even <em>heard </em>of this concept before, let alone understood it well enough to argue, “sure?”</p><p>“Well, that’s settled!” Hermione cheerfully decided for him, “Padma, why don’t you meet with Harry, say, tomorrow? I’m fairly sure his schedule is clear.”</p><p>
  <em>I<strong> was </strong>planning on sleeping in… </em>
</p><p>“Oh, uh, sure, if that’s okay with you, Harry?” Padma seemed to be just as steam-rolled by Hermione as Harry was, so he figured he might as well play along.</p><p>“Sure, why not?” Harry shrugged, “when’re you free?”</p><p>“Would around five work?”</p><p>“Sounds brilliant,” Harry agreed, rising from his seat before Hermione could loop him into anything else, “see you later, then. Cheers!”</p>
<hr/><p>As with many "mornings”, it didn’t take long for Harry to regret his decisions the night before, as he woke up later than he’d expected and spent the next couple of hours running around 12 Grimmauld Place doing his best to make it presentable. Kreacher’s ever-present “help” was – as usual – more like the complete and utter opposite of help. Harry was <em>fairly </em>sure that Padma had no interest in touring the Hall of Portraits and being screamed at by entire generations of Blacks, even <em>if </em>said hall had just been reorganized in order of which day of the week each had been born on.</p><p><em>Not a bad way of keeping him busy, though, </em>Harry thought, <em>might have to remember that. </em></p><p>While he was still fairly unclear about what, exactly, he was even meeting Padma for, Harry figured that it was the least he could do to be an adequate host; he didn’t often have company, so he might as well put in <em>some </em>effort to be presentable.</p><p>By the time he’d scoured the den of various folders and reports, cast a series of semi-competent cleaning charms to ensure that he had some mugs available, and rushed through showering and dressing himself, Harry even had enough time left before five o’ clock to throw back a coffee and smoke a cigarette on one of his many balconies.</p><p>As punctual as he’d expected, Padma’s knock on his door came at exactly five, and – in his own opinion – Harry thought that he even managed to not look panicked when he answered the door.</p><p>“Hi, Harry!” Padma cheerfully announced herself, “how’s your day been?”</p><p>“Ah, not bad,” Harry answered, welcoming her inside, “yours?”</p><p><em>Could use a drink, </em>he thought to himself.</p><p>“It’s been quite fine, thank you,” Padma looked around his home with some surprise, “quite the place you’ve got here!”</p><p>“Oh, uh, thanks,” Harry shrugged. <em>It’s just where I live, really. </em>“Um, would you care for a tea? Coffee?”</p><p>“Tea would be lovely,” Padma shouldered the purse that he just noticed she was carrying, an unusual sight for witches, “milk, and no sugar, if you don’t mind?”</p><p>“Not at all,” Harry thought he could accomplish at least this much, though he was more of a coffee drinker himself, “den’s just through that way, I’ll be back in a few.”</p><p>“Thanks!”</p><p>This exchange of pleasantries still failed to illuminate the reason that he was supposed to meet Padma today, but Harry was at least reassured that it didn’t feel like a <em>lecture </em>was in his near future. While he knew that Hermione cared deeply for him and would act like this because she genuinely wanted him to be happy, she <em>could </em>be a bit much, but it seemed (so far) that Padma didn’t share that particular habit.</p><p>When Harry returned with a cup of tea for Padma and a fresh mug of coffee for himself, she’d already seated herself in his den, looking quite at home, a heavy tome already spread out over her lap.</p><p>
  <em>That’d explain the purse, then.</em>
</p><p>“So,” Padma began, “Hermione was pretty insistent, hey?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Harry chuckled, “she does that. I know she means well.”</p><p>“I’m happy to explain what her and I were talking about,” Padma continued, “but really, I don’t want this coming off as pressure from <em>me</em>. I won’t take it personally if you aren’t interested in this, really.”</p><p>“Thanks,” Harry let a sigh that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding escape, “I appreciate it. So, what’s the, uh, topic?”</p><p>“Well,” Padma sipped her tea, “do you want the quick summary, or the whole explanation?”</p><p>“Hermione will have my head if she finds out I only got the quick summary,” Harry grumbled, “so, if you’ve got the patience, the whole deal, I suppose?”</p><p>“Okay, so,” Padma idly tapped one of her fingers against her lower lip, apparently a tic of hers, “you know that dark magic leaves a sort of residue, right?”</p><p>“Too well.”</p><p>“That’s basically the foundation of dejinxing treatments. It’s a simple enough routine, meant to clear those magical energies from someone who’s been afflicted by them. If left unchecked, some of the particularly intractable curses can leave lingering side effects, but – to be blunt – I rather doubt that this is the case for you.”</p><p>“Well, that’s… good? Why’s that?” Harry was familiar enough with the idea being discussed, but despite the veritable <em>library </em>of hexes, jinxes, and curses that he’d been hit with over the years, he hadn’t noticed any real <em>side effects </em>crop up.</p><p>“Right, and I’ll admit that this is where I also find myself somewhat unclear on why Hermione was so very insistent that I should discuss this with <em>you</em>, specifically. Every witch and wizard has a particularly unique sort of personal magical energy, though I hesitate to use this term lightly, in some regards this could be considered as a ‘soul’, an individual connection to the underlying forces of magic itself. The term ‘presence’ may be equally valid, if you prefer.”</p><p><em>Yeah, souls are a real thing, as baffling as that is, </em>Harry didn’t care to dwell on the various ways he’d seen proof of this.</p><p>“While I certainly don’t wish to imply anything so insensitive as saying that some people have more of a soul than others,” Padma continued, “the shape, structure, and scope of an individual’s unique magical presence is believed to correlate with the type of magic that this person can practice. As you’re, well, objectively, a <em>very</em> powerful wizard, it’s rather unlikely that your own presence would be meaningfully impacted by any lingering dark magic.”</p><p>
  <em>If seventeen years with a Horcrux stuck in my head didn’t fuck me up, I’m not sure if taking a few Unforgiveables here and there would do much to me, yeah. </em>
</p><p>“So… there’s nothing to worry about?” Harry was, more than anything, confused.</p><p>“That’s what I’m struggling to understand,” Padma admitted, “the variety of magic that I was discussing with Hermione is <em>related </em>to these concepts, but it has more to do with helping to address the shape or structure of someone’s ‘presence’ than it does with purging the influence of dark magic.”</p><p>
  <em>Fuck, that actually makes more sense. </em>
</p><p>“Hermione’s… worried that I haven’t really healed from the war,” Harry admitted, scratching at the back of his head from the sheer awkwardness of this conversation, “it makes sense that she’d assume some sort of, er, <em>spiritual </em>imbalance might play a role.”</p><p>“I see,” Padma leaned forwards, two of her fingers resting at her lips now, and Harry idly noticed that her nails were painted an eye-catching orange, “well, that stands to reason as to why she wanted me to speak to you about my recent research, specifically. It’s a form of magic not often practiced in Britain, so it may very well be difficult to receive this sort of help from a typical Healer.”</p><p>“What type of magic is it?” Harry wondered.</p><p>“Oh, it’s tantric magic.”</p><p>A beat passed.</p><p>Harry groaned, slumping back in his seat in exasperation.</p><p>“Padma, uh, not to be rude or anything, but I’m pretty sure that Hermione’s trying to set us up together.”</p><p>“Oh!” Padma’s cheeks darkened as she blushed, “no, no, it’s not quite like you’re thinking. Tantric magic isn’t <em>necessarily </em>expressed through sexual forms of practice, it’s actually rooted in concepts of using body positioning to work specific magical effects, more comparable to the way that we use wand movements and spoken incantations in the magical tradition here than the way that you might be picturing-“</p><p>“Padma,” Harry interrupted her rapid-fire, run-on sentence, “sorry, that came out more bluntly than I wanted, it’s just that Hermione’s already been getting on my case about looking to date again, and, well, you’re a good friend of hers…”</p><p>“No, I’m quite sure it’s not that,” Padma insisted, “I’m moving away next month, which Hermione is well aware of, and she asked a lot of very technical questions about this variety of practice, I honestly think that she’s approaching this from a <em>therapeutic </em>mindset rather than, um… <em>that</em>.”</p><p>Harry huffed a breath. He could honestly see either factor playing a role behind Hermione’s insistence. True, he didn’t think that she’d be quite so overt as to quite literally throw one of her friends at him with the excuse of “here, do sex magic together”, but neither was he fully confident that she <em>wouldn’t</em>.</p><p>“Well, er,” Harry felt a blush of his own rising, “let’s say that it is just a sort of therapy thing, how does that work?”</p><p>“It’s, um,” Padma seemed to be consciously avoiding making eye contact with him now. <em>Great job, Potter, made things awkward, haven’t you? </em>“to be blunt, yes, this particular form of ritualized treatment does involve <em>intimacy</em> of a sort, but I insist that it’s not of a <em>sexual </em>nature, despite the biases surrounding the name. It’s closer to massage therapy than anything, or maybe similar to acupuncture, except using spells instead of needles?”</p><p>
  <em>Well, that sounds like something more realistic…</em>
</p><p>“Oh,” Harry scratched at his head again, “how do, uh, how do you tell if it’s something that I need? I mean, if you’d be willing to try, that is.”</p><p>“Right!” Padma fished into her purse, the awkward moment thankfully being pushed aside by her passion for more academic pursuits, as she pulled out a set of five gold rings, “these rings are charmed to help detect someone’s magical presence. It’s a sort of magic that is inherently reliant on <em>feeling </em>in a way, so, uh, I’d have to touch your forehead, but I should be able to get an idea of whether or not you’re ‘imbalanced’ in this nature, and I don’t mean that in an insulting way.”</p><p>“I didn’t figure so,” Harry shrugged, “well, um, go ahead, if you’re ready?”</p><p>He didn’t think that this was likely to be a condition which actually affected him, but he knew that if he didn’t at least give Padma’s offer a fair and honest chance, that he’d <em>eventually </em>let that slip to Hermione, and then she’d either lecture him or – even worse – hit him with the world’s most dramatic eye-roll.</p><p>Padma moved the tome on her lap to a side table, and then leaned closer to him, hesitating for a moment before slowly reaching towards his head. When her hand pressed against his forehead, he was surprised to notice that the metal bands on her fingers felt warm against his skin, but past that, Harry didn’t really feel any kind of spiritual awakening.</p><p>“Oh, <em>wow</em>,” Padma muttered, as she removed her hand, “um, one second.” she pulled the rings from her fingers, and Harry was confused at why she seemed to look <em>impressed </em>for some reason, “um, yeah.”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“So, um, can I ask a personal question?” Padma leaned forward as she waited for his response.</p><p>“Sure?” Harry was increasingly returning to being confused.</p><p>“Do you, well, do you have any plans for the future? I mean, in a general sense is fine, but just conceptually?”</p><p>“Uh,” Harry hadn’t really come up with any possibilities that seemed interesting for a while, “…no?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Padma let out a breath that was halfway to a sigh, “so, keeping in mind I’m hardly an expert in this, you’re not doing bad or anything like that, but according to the traditions of this practice, you’re a bit off-kilter, in a way that’s somewhat associated with ‘stagnation’, and I hope you don’t think that I’m being rude…”</p><p>“No, don’t worry,” Harry frowned. While he wasn’t convinced by this particular form of evaluation, he <em>could </em>admit that he’d grown quite comfortable with his current routine, which wasn’t really news to him (even Ron had pointed it out).</p><p>“Well, um, if you want,” Padma slipped a finger between her own lips, then seemed to realize her own habit and withdrew it, “I might be able to help? It’s totally fine if you aren’t interested or comfortable with that, it’s just an offer!”</p><p>“Hmm,” Harry thought about it, and couldn’t really find a downside that he could justify, “sure? What does this treatment involve?”</p><p>“Right!” Padma returned to the tome she’d placed aside, “it’s a fairly ritualized sort of magic, it would involve me meeting with you for seven days consecutively to carry out a series of treatments, and, um, like I said, it’s really more like a massage than anything, well, <em>sordid</em>, but it would involve a certain degree of physical touch. If you’re not comfortable, I completely understand!”</p><p>
  <em>Fuck it, why not? </em>
</p><p>“Yeah, I guess if you’re comfortable with it, I am,” Harry shrugged, “I’ll give it a shot, at least.”</p><p>“Great!” Padma grinned widely, “and also thank you! This will be very helpful for me as well, I don’t know when else I’d have a chance to put the theoretical knowledge into practice, really.”</p><p>“Where’d you learn about this, anyways?” Harry wondered.</p><p>“Oh, I’ve been pursuing research about different practices around the world,” Padma explained, “it’s quite fascinating how the same underlying phenomenon of magic can manifest in such varied approaches in different cultures!”</p><p>“Huh,” Harry hadn’t thought of this before, “and this magic is, what, Indian?”</p><p><em>Ugh, </em>he realized as soon as he said it, <em>way to go, Harry, stereotyping the woman who’s offering to try and help you.</em></p><p>“Correct!” thankfully, Padma seemed to move right past his insensitivity, “which, of course, isn’t the <em>only </em>other form of magic I’m studying, Harry. I’m actually traveling to Australia next, you know.”</p><p>“…sorry,” he muttered.</p><p>“I’m just teasing,” she smirked at him, and Harry chuckled in relief, “it’s a fair assumption. I’ve got a fairly open calendar for the next three weeks, so really, any set of seven days that you can fit in your schedule should work for me, I understand you’re a busy man so you should know I’m flexible!”</p><p>
  <em>Not particularly busy, really…</em>
</p><p>“Uh,” Harry furrowed his brow in thought, “I’m actually pretty much open whenever. Tomorrow, even.”</p><p>“Hmm,” Padma retrieved a booklet from her purse, flipping through it, “yes, that should work! The first part of the ritual should be performed around noon for the best effects, would that be okay with you?”</p><p>“Brilliant,” Harry couldn’t really argue the idea, “works for me.”</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Day One</span>
</p><p>“Try to relax, if you can,” Padma instructed.</p><p>“Doing my best,” Harry grumbled, “I’m not much for flexibility, I’m afraid.”</p><p>He was seated in a <em>rather </em>uncomfortable pretzel on the floor in front of Padma, his legs crossed around each other and his elbows perched on his arms in a pose that did not feel “therapeutic” in the slightest to him.</p><p>“Yes, well, you’re in luck, the ritual we’re doing today should actually help with your sense of balance, at least in a metaphorical way.”</p><p>“Oh?”</p><p>“The full set of seven is roughly analogous to the concept of ‘chakras’, if you’ve heard of that,” Padma explained, and she seemed to be <em>much </em>more comfortable in the same pose across from him, “it’s not really <em>exactly </em>the same thing, but it’s a good way to conceptualize these rituals. This first one should be easy for you. It’s called the ‘heart chakra’, and it’s said to serve as the bridge between the upper and lower sets.”</p><p>Harry was, in fact, entirely unfamiliar with this concept, but he didn’t particularly feel like sharing that.</p><p>“So… I relax, and then?”</p><p>“Close your eyes, and once you feel like you’re ‘balanced’ in a physical sense, I’m going to put my hand on your upper chest, okay?”</p><p>Harry did his best to follow this instruction, forcing himself to take deep, slow breaths, until after a few moments, he figured that he felt about as in-tune with his body as he was able to.</p><p>“Ok,” he murmured.</p><p>Padma’s hand was <em>warm </em>against his chest, more than could be explained by her body heat alone, but past that – admittedly – pleasant sensation, Harry didn’t really notice anything <em>mystical </em>occur. When she removed her hand, he waited a bit longer for something to happen, eventually cracking one eye open.</p><p>“Is… is that it?” he asked</p><p>“This is the easiest one,” Padma smiled, “you’re already pretty much balanced at this level, from what I can tell, so this is more of a prelude to the next ones.”</p><p>“Do the next sets have even harder poses to manage?”</p><p>“Oh, I think you’ll do fine,” Padma smirked, “do try and be brave, Harry.”</p><p>He returned the smirk as he stretched his legs back to a normal position, feeling a brief tingle of pins and needles trickle up his spine as he did so.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Day Two</span>
</p><p>“I thought you said this would get easier,” Harry complained. Once more, he was contorted into the cross-legged pose Padma had him assume the day before, but this time she was crouched behind him, rather than across from him.</p><p>“It does,” Padma reassured him, “but not quite yet. The one we’re doing today is called the ‘throat chakra’, and it’s a bit more complex a ritual than yesterday.”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“Yeah,” he felt her move closer to him, “so, remember how I said that there’s a certain degree of, um, intimacy involved in these rituals? To do this one, I’m going to have to, hmm, embrace you, sort of. Is that okay?”</p><p>“I figure I can handle a hug,” Harry joked.</p><p>“Well… it’s not really a <em>hug</em>. I’m going to put my hand on your throat, but only if you’re comfortable with it.”</p><p>“Oh,” Harry swallowed, getting his nerves out of the way. <em>It’s just a treatment, </em>he reminded himself. “Yeah. That’s fine.”</p><p>Her fingers were delicate across his neck, and he became aware of the way that her other arm wrapped around the very top of his chest, her body pressed against his back.</p><p><em>Calm down, Harry, </em>he admonished himself, <em>I know it’s been a while and all, but you don’t need to make this weird. </em></p><p>“You okay?” Padma’s voice was <em>far </em>too close to his ear.</p><p>“Yup!” he replied, in what was <em>something </em>like a yelp.</p><p>“The next step,” Padma continued to explain, “is that I’m going to perform a chanted spell, and while I do so, I want you to hum along with me. You don’t have to consciously try to get the correct tone, it’s more important that you go with what <em>feels </em>right rather than over-thinking it, okay?”</p><p>“Mhmm,” Harry started early with the non-verbal communication.</p><p>“We’ll start now.”</p><p>He felt incredibly awkward at first, sitting there with his eyes closed, Padma’s hand on his neck, while she spoke in a language he didn’t know. Her voice was usually on the higher-pitched end of the scale, but while performing this magic, he noticed that her timbre dropped deeper, and he could feel the vibrations through her chest into his back.</p><p>Despite how strange it seemed, he did his best to follow her directions, humming along with the undulating rhythm of the chant, as once more he felt a magical heat emanating from Padma’s palm, her hand over his neck beginning to feel <em>soothing </em>in an odd way.</p><p>It seemed like the ritual ended as quickly as it began, but as Harry blinked to himself, feeling almost like he was floating, he realized that at least fifteen minutes had passed.</p><p>“How are you feeling?”</p><p>He took stock of himself: he felt relaxed in a pleasant way, <em>almost </em>like being drunk but without the familiar feeling of being somewhat <em>dulled</em>. His body was warm, and he was very, very conscious of the feeling of his clothes against his skin, to say nothing of the way that Padma’s fingers gently ran over the sensitive spot right above his Adam’s apple as she removed her hand.</p><p>“I could go for a smoke,” he answered, before thinking.</p><p>“Hah!” Padma laughed, as she stood to her feet, “that’s actually a sign that this part of the ritual worked as intended!”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“Absolutely! Mind if I join you?”</p><p>Harry certainly didn’t mind this idea, though he hadn’t realized that Padma smoked. Outside, where she’d lit a clove cigarette, he felt like he had to voice this thought.</p><p>“I didn’t know you smoked,” he spoke.</p><p>“We’re not at Hogwarts any more,” Padma chuckled, “I’m not nearly as strait-laced as I used to be, now that I’ve got more to my life than studying for N.E.W.T.s, yeah?”</p><p>“Yeah, I guess it’s just surprising,” Harry shrugged, “I’d figured Parvati would be more likely to have bad habits like me, y’know?”</p><p>“There’s lots of new experiences that I want to try, and anyways,” Padma shrugged in turn, “it’s not as bad a habit as you might think. Wizards and witches are quite resilient, compared to Muggles, it’s actually rather close to impossible for someone our age to develop cancer, or any of those nasty side effects.”</p><p>“Huh,” Harry hadn’t known that, “way to take the fun out of my self-destructive habit.”</p><p>Padma’s laugh was practically musical.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Day Three<br/>
</span>
</p><p>Padma seemed a bit nervous when she met with him this time, and Harry wondered if it had to do with the fact that rather than loose pants and a t-shirt, she’d shown up wearing shorts and a tank-top. While Harry certainly wasn’t <em>blind</em>, he didn’t think that he’d been staring at her or anything like that, a couple of quick glances had been more than enough to ascertain that Padma had <em>killer </em>hips.</p><p>“So, I’ve got to check in again,” she finally began to explain, after they’d sat down for a tea and coffee together, “the ritual today is a bit different from the first two, and I need to make sure that you’re still comfortable with it.”</p><p>“Is it?” Harry wondered, “how so?”</p><p>“Well, as I’ve said, tantric magic is <em>not </em>actually sex magic, that’s a stereotype,” Padma tapped her fingertips against her lips, and Harry noticed for the first time that her lips were full and <em>soft</em>-looking, “but it does tend to involve, even as a therapeutic practice alone, some degree of physical contact, like I mentioned before.”</p><p>“Er,” Harry felt heat rising at the back of his neck, “yeah?”</p><p>He wasn’t at his most eloquent, but the topic had thrown him for a loop. Once again, he had to remind himself not to read into things that weren’t actually there; it wasn’t like Padma was trying to flirt with him, she was simply practicing a new kind of magic she learned and it might have the added bonus of helping him out.</p><p>“So, well, um,” she was <em>not </em>usually prone to stammering (that was his territory), “if it’s fine with you, I’m going to ask you to get changed before today’s ritual.”</p><p>“Oh,” Harry raised an eyebrow, “into what? That doesn’t sound too bad, really.”</p><p>“It’d be best if you wore shorts too,” Padma gestured to her bare legs, “and, well, the one we’re doing today, we’re going to link our legs together. The magic works best with skin against skin, I’m afraid.”</p><p>“Ah,” Harry pondered this idea, and found that it was a bit <em>too </em>appealing in some ways, “I think I can handle that. If you’re okay with it?”</p><p>“Oh, absolutely!” Padma nodded emphatically, “I’m quite comfortable with this, actually, but I do want to make sure that you aren’t going along with anything that you aren’t okay with. Not only is there a risk that the ritual will be ineffective if you’re uncomfortable, but, well, it would be awfully inappropriate of me, right?”</p><p>“No, that’s quite fine,” Harry reassured her, “I’ll go get changed, then.”</p><p>He had to tear through a couple cupboards before he found a suitable pair of shorts which weren’t either embarrassingly large on him <em>or </em>so utilitarian that they had holes worn through them. After suitably chastising himself for his crimes against fashion, he found a comfortable pair of grey cut-off sweat pants that weren’t <em>too </em>comfortable.</p><p>“Right, yeah, that’ll work!” Padma gave him a thumbs-up when he returned downstairs, though he doubted his selection when he noticed her gaze linger on said shorts for a moment.</p><p>Later, when they started to begin the third ritual, Harry’s awkwardness from the days before returned with a vengeance: when Padma had said that their legs would be touching, he’d pictured something like sitting with their shins together, not <em>intertwined </em>in a cross-legged pose that left their faces only inches apart.</p><p>“For this one,” Padma spoke quietly, “I’m going to touch your forehead. This part of the rituals is for the so-called ‘third eye’, which is typically one of the <em>last </em>sets completed, but in your case, I believe it’s going to be most beneficial if we proceed somewhat out of the traditional order.”</p><p>“Yep!” Harry squawked, wondering if it were actually possible to <em>die </em>from embarrassment. He fidgeted with his hands, clutched nervously in front of his chest.</p><p>“Also, stop doing that,” Padma reached out to grab his wrists, taking his hands and placing them – <em>Merlin, Harry, keep it together </em>– directly on her bare thighs, “this <em>is </em>what I warned you about, Harry, so if you want to stop, now’s the time.”</p><p>“It’s fine,” he answered, too quickly, “it’s just… haven’t really been close to anyone in a while, yeah?”</p><p>“Which also makes sense, from what I saw,” Padma smiled, reassuringly, “if you need anything at any point, just tell me, okay? Otherwise, do your best to relax, and, as difficult as this sounds, try to lose yourself to your thoughts.”</p><p>“Is this like Legilimency?” he asked, doubly embarrassing himself at the idea that Padma might be able to tell what sorts of <em>thoughts </em>he was having.</p><p>“Not entirely unrelated, actually!” Padma had a bright gleam in her eyes, which Harry now noticed were a deep, rich brown colour, “good question! This is going to be more internally focused on you, rather than the external avenue of Legilimency, but the Occlumency practice of clearing your thoughts might be helpful for this ritual, if you’ve studied that. Instead of closing a door, however, try to <em>open </em>it.”</p><p>Harry closed his eyes, putting these long-unpracticed skills to work, especially trying his best to chase the thoughts of how smooth Padma’s legs were under his fingertips from his mind. In any other situation, he would have leapt out of his skin when her own fingers pressed gently against his forehead, but somehow, he was able to remain steady, and the awkward tangle that they were wrapped up in started to feel more <em>natural</em> somehow.</p><p>Minutes later, he <em>did </em>jolt from where he sat, realizing that he’d lost himself to this kind of stream of consciousness, and Padma’s fingers felt like an <em>inferno </em>that didn’t hurt against his skin.</p><p>“Huh,” Harry muttered, “I saw… a dragon, I think?”</p><p>“That’s not unusual,” Padma explained, in a reassuring tone, “the ‘third eye’ is associated with foresight and intuition, but that isn’t to say that you experienced a prophetic vision, per se. It’s more likely that the symbolism is somehow meaningful to you, but you might not even know how, as of yet.”</p><p>“Hmm,” Harry pondered this concept, until he realized that his thumbs were pressing into the tops of Padma’s thighs, his grip having tightened on her at some point. If she’d noticed, she made no indication of it, but he still released his grasp as subtly as he could. When he glanced to her face, she was staring <em>intently </em>at him, and Harry had to look away quickly, “visions, huh? Had about enough of those for a lifetime…”</p><p>“That’s one of the reasons we did this one today,” Padma explained, as she began to disentangle her legs from Harry’s, “when I tried to get a sense of your magical presence, I could tell that you were already unusually well-organized in the ways that are supposed to be associated with this concept.”</p><p>“Well-organized?” Harry was baffled, “that doesn’t really sound like me.”</p><p>“We <em>are </em>talking about magic,” Padma reached out to playfully bat at his arm, “the esoteric and nonsensical kind of comes with the territory. As contradictory as it might seem, the chaotic and uncertain aspects of magic that we just dealt with lead to development of a sort of structured aspect of self.”</p><p>“So I’m, uh, well-developed?” Harry was lost.</p><p>“You’re not bad, Harry,” Padma teased, “but I’ve seen other people with third-eyes open <em>way </em>wider than yours. You should see what Luna looks like through these sorts of lenses; I swear that she <em>must </em>be a seer.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’d believe that,” Harry agreed, wondering when Padma and Luna might have practiced this sort of magic with each other.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Day Four<br/>
</span>
</p><p><em>I’ve made a huge mistake, </em>Harry thought.</p><p>While Padma had certainly implied at many points that there’d be a level of physical contact between the two of them during these rituals, things had escalated more quickly than he’d anticipated. Once again, he’d begun to lambast himself for having such inappropriate <em>reactions </em>to what was supposed to just be a kind of magical therapy.</p><p>When Padma had begun the fourth such ritual, he hadn’t expected “physical contact” to turn into him lying on his back, shirtless on the floor, with Padma practically straddling his thighs. Harry almost missed part of her explanation of what this one would entail; he was so wrapped up in his own thoughts.</p><p>“-the ‘solar plexus chakra’, which is also associated with the element of fire: not to over-complicate this matter, but your own magical presence seems to have a significant aspect of fire-adjacent properties, which leads me to believe that this will be the last step before we unlock some more advanced rituals,” her words came as quickly as ever, and Harry <em>really </em>wished he’d caught the beginning of her sentence.</p><p>“Right,” Harry tried to blunder his way through anyways, “yeah.”</p><p>One of Padma’s hands planted against Harry’s bare chest for leverage as she leaned over him, and Harry’s own hands clenched at his sides, resisting the impulse he’d felt to reach up and pull her even further against him.</p><p>“You can put your hands on me,” Padma interjected, “in fact, it might be better, since we’re trying to maximize skin contact anyways…”</p><p>Nervously swallowing his hesitation, Harry followed her directions, lightly resting his palms against her knees. Making a <em>tsk</em> sound, Padma reached to grab his wrists with her free hand, repositioning one onto her thigh just below her hip, his other onto her torso, soft beneath his fingers.</p><p>“I don’t mind if you touch me,” Padma continued to explain, “and be aware that you’re probably going to get quite warm while we perform this one, just so you know.”</p><p>She released his wrist and placed her palm against his torso, just below his sternum. As Padma went through a series of different chants and spells, Harry closed his eyes, doing his best to focus on his breathing and only his breathing, as she’d told him to.</p><p>Indeed, after a few short moments, Harry felt a <em>heat </em>flowing through him that was unlike any he’d felt before: simultaneously a relaxing and comfortable warmth as well as an energetic, practically <em>burning </em>vigor tingling through his body.</p><p>When he opened his eyes, this sort of <em>energy </em>immediately turned to panic. Padma’s own outfit today was also one that left her significantly more exposed than the day before, and as Harry’s eyes swept up from her legs (her pair of green cloth shorts <em>barely </em>covered her arse, let alone her thighs), over her midriff (exposed by the crop-top style of shirt she’d chosen), and followed the path of a bead of sweat down her neck and into her cleavage, he became immediately aware that he was <em>hard</em>.</p><p>Before Harry could even stammer some kind of excuse and escape from underneath her before she noticed, Padma let loose a satisfied sigh, apparently just as relaxed from this latest ritual as he was, and sat back on his lap.</p><p>
  <em>Fuck…</em>
</p><p>A moment passed where the two stared at each other with wide eyes, then Padma rolled her hips against his, both hissing breaths out in response to the action.</p><p>“Oh, sorry,” Padma exclaimed, “I shouldn’t-“</p><p>“Sorry!” Harry cried out in the same moment, “I didn’t-“</p><p>They paused again, looking at each other in surprise, as Harry’s mind whirled at the fact that Padma was apologizing to <em>him</em>.</p><p>“Er,” he began, “I think I should be the one apologizing…”</p><p>“No, no,” Padma removed her hands from him, bringing them to her face in embarrassment, “I shouldn’t have, I know that this is just a kind of treatment for you and I took it too far and I-“</p><p>“Padma,” he interrupted her rambling, “uh, let’s talk about this?”</p><p>She still hadn’t moved off of his lap, despite her apparent concern, and he could feel his erection trapped between her arse cheeks in a <em>very </em>distracting way.</p><p>“Look, I, um,” Padma spoke between her hands, “I know I’m moving away soon so it’s not fair to do this to you, it’s not like I can start a relationship with you or anything, and I know that you’re still vulnerable after your break-up and all, and I shouldn’t have been selfish, and…”</p><p>“Uh,” Harry interjected, “I was worried that I was over-reacting to a platonic sort of ritual,” he looked at her – really <em>looked </em>at her – and noticed the dark flush on her neck, to say nothing of the <em>heat </em>of her skin against his, “are you… were you <em>intentionally </em>flirting with me?”</p><p>Wordlessly, she nodded, and as if just realizing their position, made to rise off of his lap. Harry’s grip tightened automatically on her hips, instinctually holding her in place before he could even think about it.</p><p>“Um,” Harry started, “I, uh, I don’t mind. I wasn’t, er, really thinking in terms of <em>relationships</em>.”</p><p>Another moment of silence passed between the two.</p><p>“So,” Padma’s voice had suddenly stopped being shaky, and was now <em>heated </em>in a very, very intriguing way, “have we both been too focused on trying to be polite, ignoring the obvious signs?”</p><p>“I think so,” Harry chuckled.</p><p>His thumb ran an idle circle over the skin of her hip, and this, apparently, was the gesture needed to go ahead.</p><p>Padma crushed down into him, her lips meeting his immediately, and Harry found that he was <em>more </em>than okay with this development. Her kiss was <em>hot</em>, almost needy in its intensity, her tongue lavishing attention against his with an enthusiasm that he wasn’t sure he’d experienced before.</p><p>Instinctively, his hands repositioned from her hips to her arse, where Harry’s first experimental squeeze confirmed that Padma’s arse was just as soft (yet firm) and enjoyable as he’d begun to suspect.</p><p>“Hey,” Padma spoke after a few minutes of snogging, pulling back from him only slightly, “want to have sex?”</p><p>Her bluntness turned out to be just what Harry needed to get past his own inner doubts, and he responded by leaning up to recapture her lips between his own, his fingers delving under the waistband of her shorts, pulling them down over the curve of her hips slowly.</p><p>The pair managed to divest themselves of the scanty clothing they <em>were </em>wearing with hardly any breaks in kissing each other, and before Harry could really even process how quickly things had changed, Padma had sunk down on to his erection, the warmth and tight wetness of her pussy making him groan.</p><p>“So you’re telling me,” Padma murmured in his ear, “you were getting turned on, and trying to hide it from me,” her hips rolled, and they both moaned at the sensation of his cock sliding deeper inside her, “instead of just <em>fucking </em>me like you should have?”</p><p>“I, uh,” Harry hadn’t really experienced this sort of talk during sex before, but he found that Padma’s sudden switch from ‘bashful and rambling’ to ‘confident and seductive’ was <em>really </em>working for him, “I didn’t want to assume…”</p><p>“This has nothing to do with the rituals,” Padma <em>licked </em>the outside of his lips, before moving her mouth to his ear, where she continued to trace her tongue over him in between words, “I just think you’re hot.”</p><p><em>Yeah, that <strong>really </strong>works for me, </em>Harry thought.</p><p>While their position didn’t allow for very rapid movements, he also found that the slow, rolling motions they made against each other were <em>incredibly </em>pleasurable in their own way. So, too, was the way that he felt her slick heat directly against his cock deeply arousing, given that he’d been making use of sheath charms in the few sexual experiences he’d had since becoming single.</p><p>“Padma, I’m, uhhh,” he groaned, “I’m getting close.”</p><p>“Good,” she licked at his Adam’s apple this time, “I want you to come for me. It’s safe. Fill me up, Harry, give me your cum.”</p><p>So too did the vulgarities coming from her mouth (Harry was pretty sure he’d never heard her <em>curse </em>before now, let alone utter these obscenities so seductively) wind up being something he very much approved of, and within seconds of her practical <em>command</em>, his orgasm exploded through him, his hips snapping up against hers as he did his best to <em>fill </em>Padma like she’d asked. He was just barely conscious of the way that her pussy tightened around him as he came, a subtle indication that she’d also reached her own climax.</p><p>The moments of afterglow were practically literal, each of the pair practically <em>burning </em>with body heat, before Padma took his head between her hands, leaning in to kiss him more chastely, her lips pressing against his only briefly.</p><p>“So,” she murmured, “this changes things, a little bit.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Harry wasn’t quite at the point where he could form coherent thoughts yet.</p><p>“Well, if we’re both attracted to each other,” Padma trailed a finger against the side of his neck, “then that <em>does </em>actually open up some more, well, <em>sexualized </em>components of rituals that we could explore.”</p><p><em>Ever the academic, hey? </em>Harry smirked as he realized the track her mind was on, <em>not that I’m complaining, mind you.</em></p><p>“I’m interested to find out,” he admitted, running his own fingers up her spine, as she still lay against his chest, “tomorrow should be… fun?” he wasn’t quite sure if this was the <em>correct </em>term, but he found he was already looking forwards to it.</p><p>“Oh, yes,” Padma agreed, “when I come back here tomorrow, we’ll have a lot of things to discuss about potential magical approaches, and I suppose that we should also clarify the non-magical aspects of what just happened – not that I’m complaining or against it, just to be clear.”</p><p>“Come back here?” Harry muttered into her ear, before reaching down to squeeze her arse, “the next ritual was supposed to be done around noon, right?”</p><p>“Mmm, that’s right,” Padma admitted, and he was glad to see that he <em>could </em>distract her.</p><p>“Stay over, then,” the idea just felt <em>right </em>to Harry, somehow, “it’s already late, anyways.”</p><p>Instead of agreeing with words, Padma simply turned to kiss him again, and Harry figured that he’d better show her to his bedroom sooner rather than later.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Day Five<br/>
</span>
</p><p>As it turned out, Padma was an early riser, as evidenced by the way that Harry woke up to her soft hand on his cock at six in the morning. It hadn’t taken him much longer to roll on top of her, and they’d enjoyed another slow, almost <em>languid </em>shag before taking a shower together.</p><p>Over breakfast, they’d finally held the conversation which Padma had alluded to the night before.</p><p>“I do best if I’m clear about what I’m feeling,” Padma explained, “so if I’m a bit too blunt, my apologies, but to be straight-forward about this, I do want to re-emphasize that I’m not pursuing an actual relationship with you, Harry.”</p><p>“That’s fine,” Harry smiled, and was surprised to realize that the words didn’t sting in any way, “I, uh, I’m not really looking to actually <em>date </em>someone right now, either.”</p><p>“I <em>was </em>somewhat concerned,” Padma admitted, “nothing against you, of course, but I wasn’t sure if you’d be the type to understand this sort of interaction for what it is, and I didn’t want to lead you on in any way.”</p><p>“I’ve had a couple one-night stands,” Harry shrugged, “if it makes you feel any better, while you’re lovely and all, I’m not really harbouring some hope that you’ll decide to cancel your move to stay here or anything like that. I’m fine just enjoying this time together.”</p><p>“Good!” Padma’s smile was bright, and Harry was struck once again by how long it had taken him to realize just <em>how </em>attractive she was, with her rich brown eyes, full lips, and <em>excellent </em>figure, “which leads me to the next topic: now that we’ve had sex, it <em>does </em>make some new forms of rituals possible for the next three days.”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“To be clear, we didn’t sleep together <em>because</em> of these rituals,” Padma tamped down on a potentially-doubtful thought before Harry could really even think of it, “but, well, I’ll admit that I didn’t always choose the most <em>platonic </em>forms that they could have taken.”</p><p>“That so?” Harry smirked at her, comfortable enough to tease her now.</p><p>“It <em>is </em>a form of magic that can be practiced between family members, after all,” Padma explained, “so, well, for example, I didn’t <em>have </em>to sit on top of you yesterday. It was more that I wanted to, so I’m glad that I wasn’t actually overstepping any boundaries.”</p><p>“I’m glad that we didn’t shag because magic got out of hand,” Harry continued to tease, “but now I’m <em>curious </em>what you have in mind for these more <em>sexual </em>kinds of rituals.”</p><p>“Well…” Padma put her cup of tea down, and leaned over to trace her fingers against Harry’s forearm, “today’s ritual is going to be one centered on an aspect roughly corresponding to the ‘sacral chakra’, the one that’s most associated with sexual energy…”</p><p>“How’s <em>that </em>one supposed to be platonic in other forms?”</p><p>“In other contexts, it would simply involve me laying hands on your belly, probably kneeling beside you,” Padma explained, “but <em>now</em>? Given the chemistry that we’ve already demonstrated, I think we can pull off a more advanced form of tantric magic, a ritual that involves us reaching orgasm together three times consecutively.”</p><p>He gulped, her open honesty a refreshing change from some of his previous experiences.</p><p>“That’s a pretty big achievement for most blokes,” Harry admitted.</p><p>“Oh, while we didn’t have sex <em>because </em>of magic,” Padma smirked at him, “there’s <em>lots </em>of neat spells that will make sex <em>better </em>with magic, don’t you worry about that.”</p><p>By the time they’d finished breakfast, Harry was <em>eager </em>to find out what Padma meant, and she seemed equally as enthusiastic to demonstrate her expertise. Rather than his den, where they’d carried out the first four rituals, she’d led him back to his bedroom, encouraging him to lie back and get comfortable while she lit different sticks of incense around the room.</p><p>When she knelt on the bed beside him, Harry’s eyes swept over her naked form once more, not bothering to disguise it as a momentary glance this time. Padma definitely tended towards a “curvy” figure, her hips wide and waist narrow, and her tits were on the “medium-to-large” side, big enough to fill his hands with a bit to spare.</p><p>They kissed, and her <em>true </em>talent in the bedroom revealed itself to Harry once again, her tongue somehow managing to border on “overwhelming” despite how slowly and <em>sensually </em>she moved it against him. He made to sit up, to reach out and touch her, but she guided him back into the bed, her hand confidently settling between his legs, stroking his cock until he reached his full hardness.</p><p>“The first one,” Padma spoke huskily to him, “is one that we’ll do with our mouths. Does that sound good to you?”</p><p>Harry nodded enthusiastically.</p><p>“It’s rare to find a man who’s so excited about cunnilingus,” she teased, “you just can’t <em>wait </em>to eat my pussy, can you?”</p><p>All Harry could do was groan as her grip tightened around his member, even as she <em>expertly </em>shifted her position, turning around so that she could swing one of her legs over his head, revealing her own arousal to him as her sex hovered over his face.</p><p>In fact, this <em>was </em>one of Harry’s favourite sexual activities, a preference that he made <em>very </em>clear as he reached up to pull her hips down, pressing her pussy against his mouth, and immediately beginning to try and match her own oral expertise, lashing his tongue against her slit.</p><p>While Harry wasn’t really the sort to compare previous partners against each other, he had the sense that if he <em>were </em>going to do so, Padma would already sit near the top of his “list”: the unsuspected way in which she turned <em>bossy </em>during sex something that he never would have guessed would really (<em>really</em>) work for him.</p><p>He moaned into her cunt as she began to suck his cock in turn, their “sixty-nine” position immediately falling into place. Harry closed his eyes, losing himself to the sensation, just barely remembering to focus enough to ensure that he was pleasuring Padma at the same time, pressing the tip of his tongue firmly against her clit.</p><p>It didn’t take long for the first of the three predicted orgasms to approach, Harry feeling a familiar tension in his cock, removing his mouth from Padma’s sex just long enough to announce “I’m getting close”. Expertly, she slowed her own ministrations, giving Harry the time to resume his own activities, encouraged by the way that Padma started to speed up once more as she surely approached her own orgasm.</p><p>Surprisingly, she didn’t remove her mouth from his cock when he came, but Harry supposed that was fair, given that he pulled her <em>tighter </em>against his own mouth when her own sex quivered against his tongue.</p><p>“That’s one,” Padma announced, sounding pleased with herself, as she swung around, firmly pressing one of her hands against his abdomen, just below his navel. Harry groaned in surprise as he felt the heat of this magic flow from her palm, coiling around his cock, which rather than deflating, surged back into full hardness.</p><p>“Do you like being on the bottom, Harry?” Padma groaned, as she repeated her actions from the day before, straddling his hips and sinking herself down on his cock, “do you like it when I <em>ride </em>you like this?”</p><p>“Fuck, you’re brilliant,” Harry agreed, reaching up to squeeze her tits.</p><p>Not that he was planning on remaining quite as passive as the night before; Padma had made clear to emphasize that it was <em>particularly </em>important to this variety of ritual that he simply enact any urge he felt as it came to his mind, rather than fussing with uncertainty or insecurity. He pushed his hips up into her, and she gasped in pleasure as he began to take control over their position.</p><p>Before long, his hips were <em>slapping </em>against hers, their motions sending thoroughly enjoyable ripples through Padma’s body, especially when she collapsed against his chest and he moved his grip from her breasts onto her arse cheeks.</p><p>“I’m getting close now,” Padma murmured to him, “you’d better hurry up and cum, Harry, you need to cum for me, okay?”</p><p>Pulling Padma even more tightly against himself, Harry pistoned his hips harder than he’d done with her yet, the echoing <em>slaps </em>of their sex growing louder and less rhythmic as he single-mindedly pursued his own climax. When he felt Padma tighten around his cock, a surprisingly low moan escaping from her throat, it was all that he needed to reach his second orgasm, letting a groan of his own loose as he came inside her.</p><p>“Fuck, Harry,” Padma’s voice returned to its usual high pitch as she rolled off him, “keep fucking me. Come here, get on top of me, get that <em>big cock </em>back inside me.”</p><p>He hurried to obey, pushing his manhood back inside of her as quickly as he could, hissing in pleasure at the sensation of resuming sex mere seconds after his last climax. He knew that he wouldn’t have been able to <em>perform </em>this well were it not for Padma’s magic, but instead of feeling doubts about his own ability, he lost himself in this uniquely pleasurable opportunity.</p><p>While on top of her, he set a slower pace than the frantic actions of moments before, sawing in and out of her pussy with long, almost leisurely strokes. This wasn’t to say that he was being <em>gentle</em>; the force of his thrusts made Padma’s tits jiggle appealingly under him, and when he glanced to the point where their sexes were connected, the sight of his own cum lubricating them both sent a lewd thrill through his thoughts.</p><p>“Give it to me, Harry,” Padma begged, “give me <em>everything, </em>I want to feel you cum again, I want you deep inside me, I want it <em>all</em>.”</p><p>He leaned down to kiss her once again, her tongue pushing into his mouth immediately, with an intensity that very well might have <em>choked </em>him if he had the wherewithal to put the feeling into words. Harry pushed as deep inside of her as he could, feeling her spasm underneath him from the depth of his penetration, then pulled back slowly, only to slam back inside her with as much vigor as he could manage.</p><p>When he came for the third time, it was like his world briefly exploded into colour, and Padma’s <em>shrieking </em>cry underneath him indicated that they’d successfully fulfilled this ritual’s conditions; the warm flow of magic through his abdomen, down to his cock, and then up his spine confirming it for him.</p><p>“Fuck,” he muttered, when he could think of words again, “that was intense.”</p><p>“It should be,” Padma giggled, pecking him on the lips, “in theory, you should be a bit more confident after this, but, well, magic is one thing, shagging my <em>brains </em>out should give you reason to feel proud all on its own.”</p><p>He chuckled contentedly, slipping out of her pussy, as he repositioned to lie beside her, pulling her body against his in a lazy embrace.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Day Six<br/>
</span>
</p><p>Though Padma had left for part of the evening, it turned out that she returned to 12 Grimmauld Place the night before, electing to sleep over at his place once more. They hadn’t had sex again that night (Harry gave himself a fair amount of credit, but fucking <em>four </em>times in a day was beyond his abilities), but instead had laid together in his bed, Harry more than happy to fulfill Padma’s insistence that they maintain as much physical proximity to each other as possible.</p><p>He wasn’t entirely convinced that this was even a requirement of the magic they were performing, but he certainly wasn’t going to argue if a gorgeous woman wanted to spend the night in his arms.</p><p>She’d left his place again for a while in the afternoon, returning by the early evening with her large purse slung over her shoulder again, and a noticeable <em>gleam </em>in her eyes.</p><p>“The sixth ritual,” she explained, “is going to be an <em>interesting </em>one. It’s related to the ‘root chakra’, generally speaking, which is actually the area of my own magical presence in which I’m the strongest, and you’re the weakest. Not to say that you’re deficient or anything like that, Harry, but just to prepare you that this one might be somewhat… <em>intense</em>.”</p><p>“Hmm,” Harry reached out to tease at her hair, which was lustrous, black, and slightly curly, “I think I’m up to the challenge. What does this ritual involve?”</p><p>“Oh, you’ll see,” Padma smirked at him, “get naked, and lay on your front, would you?”</p><p>He did so, as he heard Padma rummaging in her bag behind him, followed by the now-familiar sounds of her stripping her own clothes. He felt himself already growing hard against his bed, eagerly anticipating whatever form of tantric magic that Padma had in mind for this sixth night together.</p><p>Harry groaned pleasurably as Padma’s hands began to press into his back, her skin warm against his, her palms slick with something. Rather than spending more time trying to analyze what, exactly, she was doing, he lost himself in the sensations of this massage, her hands expertly kneading against his muscles, the oil that she must have doused her hands in adding to the feeling.</p><p>After a while, she began to rub her body against his, and Harry didn’t bother hiding his pleasurable moan as he felt her tits sliding against his back, her thighs (much like her arse, an enjoyable mix of soft and firm) clenching over his own arse.</p><p>“Turn over,” she commanded, and he did so as smoothly as he could.</p><p>He took a moment to stare at her, Padma’s brown skin shining in the dim light of his bedroom, slick with the oil that she’d applied to him. She slid against his body once again, her hands pressing into his chest, his abdomen, then finally sliding between his legs, where she gripped his cock with both hands, stroking him lazily. His hips arched upwards as her fingers brushed lower, ghosting over his arsehole, the oil coating both of them feeling <em>warm </em>against this sensitive spot.</p><p>Without words, she rolled off of him, urging him to instead roll on top of her, guiding his hands gently to help spread the massage oil around her body, over her tits, her legs, and then <em>lower</em>. With Padma’s hand over his wrist, Harry’s fingers were directed between her legs, his now-slick digits brushing between her arse cheeks, coating her flesh in the slippery oil that they were now both covered in.</p><p>She raised her legs, bending into a position that Harry hadn’t seen before, her knees practically at her own shoulders, her ankles <em>almost </em>behind her head.</p><p>“Harry,” she murmured, “fuck my arse, <em>please</em>.”</p><p>He’d never done this before, but any hesitation or doubt was cast aside by the <em>desire </em>present in his voice, as he carefully aligned himself with her most taboo entrance, the throbbing head of his cock pressing against the ring of her arse. With a glimpse back up to her eyes (which were hooded with lust), he pushed forward, groaning in pleasure as he felt an entirely new kind of sensation around his cock.</p><p>“That’s it, Harry,” Padma encouraged him, “put that nice, <em>thick </em>cock inside of me. <em>Pierce </em>me, <em>break me open</em>, <strong>please.</strong>”</p><p>The feeling of fucking her arse was almost indescribable, so much <em>tighter </em>than anything he’d felt before now. Cautiously, he sank further into of her, the oil coating both of them sufficient lubrication for him to slip past her entrance, into the <em>heat </em>of her insides.</p><p>“Ffffuck,” Padma moaned, apparently <em>just </em>as into this as he was.</p><p>He set a slow, cautious pace at first, amazed at the sight of his cock disappearing between her full arse-cheeks, until he couldn’t resist the temptation any further, rocking his hips back and forth in short, gentle motions.</p><p>“Give me more, Harry,” Padma reached up to pull him down to her, running her tongue along the side of his neck, “put <em>all </em>of that big cock in my arse, <em>tear me in half</em>.”</p><p>Harry shoved his hips forwards, hilting himself inside her arse, and he felt a spark of concern when Padma twitched underneath him, her legs (still bent practically to her head) spasming against his shoulders.</p><p>“You okay?” he asked.</p><p>“Fuck, I just fucking came,” Padma hissed, “keep fucking going, Harry, if you stop, I’ll fucking slap you.”</p><p>This was all the encouragement that he needed, beginning to actually thrust in earnest, savouring the feeling of her arse <em>clenching </em>around his cock, Padma’s brusque demand more than enough to inspire him to put his best efforts forward.</p><p>“You’re the first, Harry,” she murmured, “the first to fuck my <em>arse</em>. Don’t you like how it feels? How <em>tight </em>I am for you?”</p><p>“Fuck, Padma,” he groaned.</p><p>“<em>Fuck me, </em>yes,” Padma agreed, “<em>fuck </em>my tight arse, <em>cum </em>in it, <em>ruin </em>me.”</p><p>It didn’t take him long to do just that, shuddering and groaning as he felt his climax <em>explode </em>from him, and as he did so, he felt the tingle of magic rush over him, starting from the base of his own spine, then rushing both forwards and backwards, as if ghostly fingers brushed over his arsehole, up his balls, to the tip of his cock, and up his spine at the same time.</p><p>He slumped forwards on top of Padma, who made a pleased little sound, her hands running through her hair as her legs flopped forwards, no longer pinned in place by his shoulders.</p><p>“<em>Wow</em>,” he muttered, finally, “that <em>was </em>intense.”</p><p>“I did warn you,” she teased, “but, um, <em>yes</em>. I wasn’t exaggerating, that was the first time I’ve done that, but, well, thank you for helping me find a new experience that I <em>very much </em>enjoyed.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Harry chuckled, shifting his position so that he lay beside her, watching how her chest rose and fell as she breathed heavily.</p><p>“Fuck, yes,” she admitted, cursing for the first time that he’d heard when he <em>wasn’t </em>inside of her, “I really, <em>really </em>liked that, as it turns out.”</p><p>“Good to know,” Harry swung one of his legs over hers, wrapping her in an embrace. Sleep wasn’t far behind them, the raunchiness of their earlier activities immediately giving way to a comfortable, gentle sort of intimacy.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Day Seven<br/>
</span>
</p><p>“So,” Padma explained, “seven is an important number in magic, a lot of ritual sets are centered around it, which means that today’s going to be the most intense that we’ve gone through to date.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Harry was all-too-familiar with the number seven as a magical theory, “more than last night?”</p><p>“Not in the same way,” Padma tapped a finger against her lips, and Harry now found that this frequent gesture of hers inspired very <em>different </em>sorts of thoughts than it had when he’d first noticed it, “last night was the most magically intense, but the one today… it might get a bit <em>emotional, </em>just so you’re aware.”</p><p>“How’s that?”</p><p>“Well, the ritual we carried out last night was based on <em>vulnerability, </em>in a way,” Padma continued, “the root chakra is associated with my greatest magical strengths, so <em>opening </em>myself like that allowed us to share <em>magic </em>in a brief moment, which, uh, I should have prepared better for.”</p><p>“Oh?” he felt a brief flicker of concern.</p><p>“You’re <em>very </em>powerful,” Padma shushed him as he started to protest, “which means that I was somewhat more affected by the ritual than I’d prepared for. It’s nothing bad – quite the opposite, really – but it means that we’ve forged a bit of a magical connection between each other, which isn’t an <em>unexpected </em>result of these rituals, though not common when there’s no deeper connection <em>outside </em>of the actual ritual performance.”</p><p>“So, uh,” Harry felt the temptation to scratch at the back of his head, but put it aside for now, “what does that imply, then?”</p><p>“The final ritual,” Padma reached out to stroke his hand idly, “is one that would be associated with the ‘crown chakra’, the connection to the spiritual realm itself. Unlike many other people, Harry, this is an area where you’re <em>shockingly </em>connected, actually, so it’s not as likely to result in any significant change for you, but it’s necessary to help solidify the previous spells we’ve been working on.”</p><p>“Which means…”</p><p>“Given that we’ve <em>connected </em>a bit more than I anticipated, this ritual might inspire, well, certain sorts of <em>feelings</em>. It’s not related to any form of compulsion, this is a purely personal variety of magic, but it’s not impossible that, when we carry out this ritual, you might notice that you feel <em>connected </em>to me.”</p><p>“That… doesn’t sound bad to me?” Harry admitted.</p><p>“It <em>isn’t </em>bad, but, well, um, I just have to be clear,” Padma looked into his eyes, “you’re a good man, Harry, and I certainly don’t regret anything that we’ve done together, but, like I said, I’m just simply not going to be the <em>one </em>for you.”</p><p>“I know that,” Harry shrugged, surprised once more that these words didn’t sting, “so what’s the concern?”</p><p>“It’s also somewhat likely that we’ll forge a <em>bond </em>of a sort,” Padma continued, “one that might well linger indefinitely. This isn’t as rare as you think, it’s likely that you have much more powerful bonds already in place with Ron and Hermione, but given that you and I haven’t been as close before these last few days, um, I don’t want you to misinterpret what it might mean.”</p><p>“Padma,” Harry teased, “have you ever heard of ‘friends with benefits’?”</p><p>“Um, no?”</p><p>“It’s a Muggle idea, where friends sleep together but don’t take any further steps into an actual <em>official </em>relationship,” Harry was unreasonably pleased that he could actually explain something which Padma didn’t know, “I’m also glad that we’ve, uh, gotten <em>closer </em>recently, but I’m not going to wax poetic about it or anything like that. I’m thrilled that you’re a good friend of mine, but I’m not exactly planning on chasing you around the world with marriage proposals or anything like that, yeah?”</p><p>Padma laughed brightly at his example, before smiling at him, placing her other hand within his.</p><p>“Thanks, Harry,” she answered, “I’m glad that you understand what I’m getting at. For what it’s worth, I’d definitely have shagged you without any magical implications behind it.”</p><p>“Same here,” Harry chuckled, “but if you can practice some new magic <em>and </em>help me be a bit less fucked up? All the better, right?”</p><p>Instead of replying, she leaned across the table to kiss him, and then the kiss deepened, her tongue once again entering his mouth, dancing against his own.</p><p>“Let’s do it now,” Padma breathed, when they separated, “this feels like the right moment.”</p><p>Instead of returning to his bedroom, Padma instead guided him back to the den, where they’d first started performing these rituals. She laid down on the couch, pulling him down on top of her, immediately resuming their briefly-interrupted snogging.</p><p>They divested each other of the clothes they wore in short order, kissing each other deeply as each of the pair thrust their hands between the others’ legs, Padma stroking Harry to hardness, Harry rubbing gently against her wet pussy.</p><p>“Inside me,” Padma breathed, between kisses, “now.”</p><p>Her familiar heat wrapped around his cock once again, as Harry began to slide slowly in and out of her, enjoying the feel of her tits crushed against his chest, her smooth legs wrapped around his hips. She ran her fingers into his hair, pulling his head downwards, so that their foreheads pressed together.</p><p>She muttered a few words that he didn’t understand as he continued to fuck her, until the feeling of her magic wrapping around him came into existence once more, this time coiling around the base of his neck, sending pleasurable little shocks into his head.</p><p>He felt something begin to <em>open </em>in his mind, and briefly resisted the feeling, suddenly extremely conscious of every individual sensation through his body, the pleasurable grasp of Padma’s sex around his cock doubling (then doubling again) in intensity.</p><p>“<em>Let go,</em>” Padma commanded, and he did.</p><p>In that instant, he climaxed, more quickly and intensely than he’d ever experienced before, as his thoughts <em>exploded. </em>He felt a <em>presence </em>in his mind, a strong, stable, and <em>powerful </em>feeling, the sensation bringing to mind the feeling of standing atop a mountain’s peak. Somewhere deep inside of him, he felt something slide into place, as if a previously-empty spot had been filled.</p><p>He was conscious of the fact that he also felt other absences somewhere within himself, something like a cup only partly filled, but this feeling was washed away by a wave of <em>joy, </em>as he became aware of his body once more, Padma’s pussy <em>clenching </em>around his cock as if her own body was trying to milk every last bit of pleasure from his.</p><p>Harry let a deep sigh loose as he collapsed onto Padma, the shockingly quick way that this final ritual had concluded leaving him feeling like he was almost floating, adrift in a haze of pleasure.</p><p>“I see what you meant,” Harry eventually murmured, “that was… <em>wow.</em>”</p><p>“I’m glad,” Padma pressed a gentle kiss against his lips, “and… well, I’m grateful that I could share this with you. You’re better than you realize, you know.”</p><p>He couldn’t quite figure out what she meant by that, but Harry had other thoughts to occupy himself with, namely the pleasant, warm feeling of Padma’s body under his own.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">The Days After</span>
</p><p>Padma had wound up staying the night once again on that seventh day, but the morning after, had left before breakfast, departing with one more kiss against Harry’s lips. While he felt a circling sort of concern in the back of his mind, he put those thoughts aside, realizing that this was not an unexpected outcome of their temporary time together.</p><p>He didn’t see her for the next week, up until another Friday night, when Hermione had invited him out to a social event of some sort, and Harry surprisingly felt motivated and energized to attend this outing.</p><p><em>I guess the rituals did some good after all, </em>he mused, as he sat in the Hog’s Head Inn, for the first time since… some point that he’d been a student at Hogwarts.</p><p>At Padma’s insistence, Harry hadn’t revealed to Hermione that the two of them had started sleeping together during the tantric rituals, instead answering his friend’s questions by focusing on the less-intimate aspects that had resulted, such as his newfound <em>drive </em>to do things. It wasn’t even untrue; he’d found that he once again experienced the desire to be physically active, to fill his days with activities somewhat more productive than merely moping around or waiting until it was an acceptable-enough hour to get drunk.</p><p>When Padma showed up at the party, Harry greeted her in a friendly manner, their quick hug entirely absent of any sort of lingering touches or subtle gropes as he’d experienced with her, and again, he found himself surprised that this felt <em>natural </em>to him.</p><p>“Yeah, I’ve sorted things out with my flat,” Padma explained, later in the evening, “since I’ve only got a week left in London, I figured that I was going to stay at Parv’s place for a while, but I guess that’s off-limits now.”</p><p>Harry chuckled into his pint, as Padma’s twin had <em>conspicuously </em>left the party early, the way that she was wrapped around Seamus Finnigan a fairly clear indication of the way that Parvati was intending to spend her time in the future.</p><p>“Oh,” Hermione added, “that’s too bad! Do you have a backup plan? I’d offer up my own flat, but it’s a bit small,” <em>and covered with different projects of yours, ‘Mione, </em>Harry mentally added, “so I’m not sure if that’d be the best fit.”</p><p>“I figure I’ll just get a room here,” Padma continued, “it’ll eat into my travel funds a bit, but I should be able to manage, I might just have to get a job for a while when I land in Australia.”</p><p>“I’ve got a spare room,” Harry interjected, the words leaving his mouth before he could even realize it, “I, er, I mean, if you’d rather save some galleons, you’re welcome to stay at mine for a bit.”</p><p>“Oh, of course,” Hermione announced, “Harry, you’ve got more than <em>one </em>spare room, you live in a bloody mansion! Pads, that actually makes a lot of sense,” she nodded to herself, as Harry caught the nickname that she used for her friend.</p><p>“You’re too generous, Harry,” Padma teased, “but I might have to take you up on that! I’m sure I can figure out some way to make it up to you.”</p><p>She winked at him, the gesture only visible to the two of them, and Harry felt a hint of a blush rising at his neck as he realized what form this “repayment” might take.</p>
<hr/><p>Sure enough, Padma had come home with him that night, after she’d made a series of public excuses to Hermione and her other friends that Harry’s guest room was currently unoccupied, a state which it would retain for the next week: Padma spent every night during the week she stayed at his home in his bed with him.</p><p>Even without the excuse of performing magical rituals together, the pair found that they shared a comfortable, easy chemistry with each other. Padma’s earlier words about wanting to <em>explore </em>new experiences hadn’t been for show either, as she and Harry often spent their nights trying out various types of sex together, a sort of dynamic which Harry supposed wasn’t unusual for young adults of their age.</p><p>They’d discovered that Padma preferred positions which left them face-to-face, though her own flexibility significantly expanded the <em>variety </em>which that involved. She wasn’t much of a fan of <em>fast </em>sex, which was fine with Harry, comfortably accommodating her taste for slow, yet <em>intense </em>forms of penetration.</p><p>Their experience during the sixth ritual, however, had been something of a revelation for Padma, uncovering that she had a genuine <em>enjoyment </em>of being buggered; quite frequently, Harry would be uncertain as to <em>which </em>of her holes she’d rather he fuck, right up until she made her choice for the night obvious.</p><p>While she liked being spanked, many other forms of rough sex weren’t quite to her liking; her nipples were too sensitive for her to enjoy them being pinched or bitten, but being <em>licked</em>? That was another matter entirely.</p><p>One of Padma’s more unique skills that the pair had decided on was her <em>oral </em>talent: she wasn’t much of a fan of deep-throating or actually <em>sucking </em>his cock, but was absolutely <em>amazing </em>when it came to lavishing her tongue over his body, the experience when she’d given him a hand-job (while practically<em> making out</em> with his balls) one that Harry would remember for a long time.</p><p>He’d teased her about this after the fact, joking that she’d make a ‘great lesbian’, and her response of “well, I <em>am </em>rather interested in trying new experiences, I expect I’ll put that to the test” filling Harry’s mind with such vivid images that he couldn’t help but be <em>inspired </em>enough to fuck her a second time that night.</p><p>As their time together came to an end, they spent one last night together, when they’d returned to Harry’s home after Padma’s going away party.</p><p>“You’re so good,” she hissed, as he was fucking her in the missionary position once more, “so big, so <em>hard</em>, fuck, you’re going to ruin me for other men at this rate.”</p><p>“You’re gorgeous,” Harry replied, slamming his hips into hers, taking her lips between his, “and you always know where to find me, don’t you?”</p><p>“Fuck,” Padma thrust against him, as Harry noticed the now-familiar signs that she was approaching her own climax, “maybe I will. Fuck, don’t stop.”</p><p>He plunged into her as deeply as he could manage, lifting one of her legs up to tilt her hips into his own, the angle letting him fuck into the <em>deepest </em>parts of her pussy. It didn’t take her long to cum, and so too was his own climax fast at hand, spilling inside of Padma one more time.</p><p>Minutes later, she rolled to her side, running her fingers down his chest.</p><p>“I’ve had a really fun time with you, Harry,” she murmured, “thanks for sharing this with me.”</p><p>“Me too,” Harry agreed, “and, um, yeah, thanks?”</p><p>“I might take you up on that offer, you know,” she teased, “I can’t say I’ve any real <em>itinerary </em>in mind for the future, but, well, if we wind up in the same city again, and we’re both single, maybe I’ll take advantage of that fact.”</p><p>“I’d like that,” Harry chuckled, “but, yeah, who knows where we’ll wind up.”</p><p>“The future’s wide open, isn’t it?”</p><p>Harry drew her into another embrace, as they fell asleep in his bed once more.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span class="u">Later</span>
</p><p>Harry couldn’t say that he wasn’t somewhat out of sorts after Padma had left, but he also knew that he wasn’t exactly <em>sad </em>or <em>longing </em>for her. It had always been clear that their time together had been a temporary arrangement, and the memories that she’d left him with were ones that he would never regret making.</p><p>While he wasn’t entirely sure whether the rituals they’d performed were responsible, or if it was merely explained by the fact that he’d spent three weeks shagging a gorgeous young witch, Harry felt somewhat more at-ease in the months following, finding it easier to leave his house, more enjoyable when he spent time with his friends.</p><p>He certainly hadn’t <em>changed </em>overnight or anything along those lines; he still enjoyed his firewhisky a bit more than he probably should, and found that he tended to smoke like a chimney whenever he was stressed, but in general, he felt somewhat more <em>centered </em>in some undefinable way.</p><p><em>Maybe it’s just a self-esteem boost, </em>he mused. While Padma’s habit of being needily demanding during sex was <em>hot </em>more than anything else, the various compliments that she’d paid him over their time together didn’t feel disingenuous in the way that so many fans of “the Man-Who-Won” were, and Harry had honestly started to believe that he might, <em>maybe</em>, have some genuinely good qualities to himself.</p><p>The next one-night stand he’d had had actually given him reason to believe that he might be <em>good </em>in bed; while Romilda Vane wasn’t someone that he planned to take to his bedroom ever again (<em>far too intense, way too into the “celebrity” idea</em>, he thought), the next notch in his belt had, at least, built on his confidence that smallest amount.</p><p>As Harry looked out from his balcony, having a cigarette as the sun dipped below the horizon, he idly wondered what Padma might be up to. She’d briefly explained the Australian approach to magic to him (<em>“very much influenced by the original people of that nation, their magic has more of an emotional or dream-based aspect to it than ours does”, </em>she’d confidently described), but he couldn’t help but wonder if she, too, had taken other lovers in the interim.</p><p>He smiled to himself as he realized that this thought didn’t actually bother him; as much as he’d portrayed himself confidently to her when she had first raised these concerns, it actually hadn’t taken Harry long to realize that he <em>could </em>have developed genuine feelings for Padma, were things a bit different.</p><p><em>Who knows, </em>he thought, <em>the future’s wide open, after all.</em></p><p>Relaxing as he stared at the sunset, Harry mused about his own future.</p><p><em>Maybe I’ll take a trip of my own, </em>he thought, <em>I did want to see the continent, and I’m not really up to much right now…</em></p><p>Smiling with confidence, he sent a thought of gratitude towards Padma, as Harry decided that he’d take inspiration from her and finally leave Magical Britain for a while himself.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm looking forward to the reception of this fic, which is partly a spin-off, and partly a prequel to the Triplicity series. </p><p>Readers of that series will recognize this as the full story of Harry revealing that he and Padma had a past together, but I'm hoping that people who <i>haven't</i> read the main series will still be able to enjoy this on its own merits. </p><p>Let me know what you think!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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